From the Bottom of the World
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: Kyou gets punched in the face by reality and almost comes to terms with it.


**Found an older story of Kyou I had written in a notebook. Thought to self, "I love Kyou. I love writing angst. Season one Kyou had more angst potential." This takes place after the end of season one, but I guess before season two starts...**

_**...Yes!**_

They weren't going to tell him that he'd been wrong too. They were just random hoodlums he'd pick up in the street, more rejects of Foo Fighter and they weren't going to tell him he'd been wrong because he'd gotten farther than they ever had, clearly farther than they'd even been capable of getting. No, they would never do something like what Asaka and Tetsu and fucking _Ren_ had done to him and not just because they practically worshipped the ground they walked on too – they weren't his parents. They weren't even Tetsu, just some... friends... if "friends" was really a word he could use to describe these two, since he'd never been too certain on the concept behind friendship either.

Of course, sitting in the back alleys, nursing a black eye after getting punched in the face, there wasn't too much Kyou _was_ certain of right now. He was still feeling pretty woozy.

Except maybe-probably he was almost certain that a scolding from those two wasn't anywhere in his future. Even though he'd just gotten into a fight? His parents might not have either, but Tetsu would have at least given him a _look,_ and back then, when Tetsu had actually been around to do that, he would have...

'God,' Kyou realized, as his eye continued throbbing. 'I'm actually starting to miss Tetsu.'

...He would have just thought of Tetsu's disapproval as annoying. Getting into an actual fist fight would have sounded much cooler back then too though – and, of course, Kyou would have imagined himself winning, and looking awesome while winning, and certainly not sitting on on his rear end while someone else was holding an ice bag to the black eye he'd gotten from losing.

Considering the three of them were practically homeless at the moment, he wondered where they'd even gotten it from. Kyou's parents had stopped giving him allowance money at least a month ago, said they were sick of his failures and sick of his disgracing the family name. If he wanted to play around all the time, then he could pay his own bills and that included the ones for the shabby little apartment he was temporarily staying in.

Kyou tried not to linger on that thought, because that brought him dangerously close to tears in his eyes and he could already feel the lump in his throat forming.

Perfect. It would match that eye.

He'd used to receive an additional envelope with a little extra money in it sometimes. Never much, and he'd never put much thought into it as a result – but now that he did, that was probably Tetsu's. Never sent it with a return address or anything, but that was probably the sort of thing Tetsu would do.

It was hard to imagine Tetsu really liking him, exactly, but compared to Asaka and Ren and his own mom and dad, Tetsu at least hated him the least.

"Damn it."

He told himself he wasn't going to think about these things.

"Hey, bo... K-Kyou?! Is something wrong?"

It's not like using that name was going to make him feel any better. He didn't even want it anymore.

Really unexpected though, coming from him. The Great Kyou, never felt remorse, never felt sorry for himself, never knew when he was talking too much – arrogant, arrogant, arrogant... It was easier to just not think about it, so he simply hadn't. Really tried not to. And now he was, damn.

There really had been a day when he'd believed he was the best in the world though.

"I punched the guy first, so get mad or something!" He said it through grit teeth. Clenched fists. Kyou almost wished they would get mad, for reasons he didn't fully understand.

The two exchanged glances. Kyou could tell, even with his eyes closed. That pause made it obvious, and he'd been dealing with these two long enough to know by now.

Was it really too much to ask that someone be concerned about his well-being!? Maybe how he was feeling or the fact that he'd just walked out of a stupid fight with a black eye!?

Did he really even consider these two friends?

"I hate you, I hate you both...!"

Yeah, well, he was stuck with them. He had no one else, so the answer was "yes" whether he liked it or not, _because he was stuck with them_.

He shut up just long enough to hear one of them say, "Kyou, you're throwing a tantrum" without the slightest bit of anger and no hesitation – just a cold, simple fact.

Honestly, it was sort of a relief.

**Feel free to count Kyou's contradictions. Anger and self-pity can be kind of illogical like that... Though there's nothing wrong with either, at least in small amounts. Someone told me that.**

** Kyou talks a lot about friends, but it reads more like "Daddy Issues" to me. **

** Now, if you've seen any of season two, it's really clear that the other two members of Team Avengers really do show concern for Kyou. Maybe they didn't when they first met him or maybe Kyou didn't realize that they did – that's how I like to see their relationship. (And I may have made a few jokes about them being the world's worst babysitters in the past...)**


End file.
